The awards event honoured students for their entries reflecting the theme of equality and togetherness, and was attended by a host of former and current professional footballers and VIP guests including Chris Kamara, Jason Lee, Gordon Taylor, Dave Bennett, Gary Bennett, Trevor Sinclair, Dave Prentis and Kevin Courtney, among others.

Unite, a long-time supporter of Show Racism the Red Card, congratulated this year’s winners (pictured below), some of whom were as young as six years old.

Unite regional officer Alison Spencer-Scragg (pictured with Chris Kamara below), who represented the union at the awards ceremony, hailed this year’s winning entries and the inspiring young people behind them.

“It was an honour to represent Unite at the annual Show Racism the Red Card school competition awards ceremony in Manchester and celebrate with the worthy winners the efforts of the next generation in fighting racism,” she said.

“The entries (some pictured below) were a mix of creative writing pieces, visual exhibitions and posters but all shared the common message that we must challenge discrimination wherever we come across it,” Spencer-Scragg added. “It was inspiring to see children from all across our communities get involved and send a powerful message of unity and hope – everyone who took part should be proud of the role they are playing in combatting racism.”

“We hope that the winning entries from this year’s anti-racism competition will inspire people from across the UK and beyond,” he said.

“The competition sees thousands of young people take part annually and it is a hard job for the judges to pick the winners from so many great entries. This year there were some wonderfully original entries and we would like to thank all of the teachers for promoting the competition in their schools.”

Speaking ahead of the event, Unite general secretary Len McCluskey, who is a passionate advocate for Show Racism the Red card and anti-racism education, hailed the work the charity does.

“The work of Show Racism the Red Card is vital in educating young people and ridding racism from our football pitches, terraces and communities,” he said. “All the entrants and winners in this year’s awards should be proud of their work which demonstrates that unity can overcome division and discrimination.”